235 Shares in BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) Bought by Good Steward Wealth Advisors LLC

Good Steward Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 235 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BLK. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 104,598.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,500,083 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,312,759,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496,740 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $2,356,357,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 401.5% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,095,241 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,122,743,000 after purchasing an additional 876,836 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 138,682.5% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 634,236 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $634,000 after purchasing an additional 633,779 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BlackRock during the fourth quarter worth $572,730,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BLK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,045.00 to $1,010.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $950.00 to $990.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,028.00 to $1,090.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,035.00 to $1,105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,046.00 to $988.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,096.31.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $912.50, for a total transaction of $9,125,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 66,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $60,256,025. This represents a 13.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.98% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK opened at $974.60 on Friday. BlackRock has a fifty-two week low of $773.74 and a fifty-two week high of $1,084.22. The company has a market capitalization of $150.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $948.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $970.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 4.34 and a current ratio of 4.34.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The asset manager reported $11.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.84 by $0.46. BlackRock had a net margin of 30.09% and a return on equity of 15.57%. The business had revenue of $5.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.47 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.81 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that BlackRock will post 47.41 earnings per share for the current year.

BlackRock Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 5th will be issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 5th. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.63%.

BlackRock Company Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks.